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24 Hours of Le Mans
Le Mans 24 Hours Live Commentary and Updates
Updates and live commentary throughout the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
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LMH: Lopez just banged in a 3m29.3s laptime. He's wide awake in there! He just put 4.3s on Hartley on that lap alone.
Pit stop
GTE Pro: Just I write that, Molina's dived for the pits. Catsburg however is still closing down the lead gap; he's now 17s down on Ledogar.
GTE Pro: For the first time in, err, a while, the class-leading #51 Ferrari's cushion is down to 20s, as Catsburg chips away at Ledogar's advantage. Molina is likewise still catching Catsburg, and is now just 4s down. Game on.
GTE Am: Quick update on the lead gap, which now stands at 1m06s in favour of the #83 Ferrari of Alessio Rovera. That means Felipe Fraga (TF Sport Aston Martin) has taken around 10s out of his opposite number during this stint.
LMP2: The Risi issue was a gearbox cooler leak, but it's been patched up and Olly Jarvis is about to return to battle. The car has dropped to 22nd overall.
Pit stop
LMH: The #8 car has pitted for fuel, and Hartley is underway again. 200 laps are in the books.
GTE Pro: In case you were wondering about the #64 Corvette, it's just returned to the track after a little over an hour in the garage due to a clutch failure. Alexander Sims is at the wheel of the car which is now officially the 49th and final runner in the field, 21 laps off the class lead.
GTE Am: Barnicoat's made it back, but the #71 Ferrari is straight in the garage after an excruciating 16-minute lap of the Circuit de la Sarthe. Replays show the front-left parts company with the car shortly after exiting the pits, before it had even made it as far as the Dunlop Chicane.
GTE Am: The #71 Ferrari is conspicuously missing its front-left wheel, which explains why Barnicoat was touring. He's still trying to get the Inception machine back to the pits, he's just made it as far as Maison Blanche.
Off track
LMP2: More trouble for the #82 Risi Competizione ORECA, which comes back to the pits in a steaming mess, by the looks of it.
Quote
LMP2: Jan Magnussen tells the WEC pit reporter about the repairs to the #49, which is going again: "Front and rear corners have been changed. Wasn't great. Somebody hit me right in the back. The car felt good when I got going again. I felt something a bit wrong at the rear at Turn 1, but as I came out of the Esses a rear tyre blew up." He quips that sharing with son Kevin has been "the only good thing about this weekend".
GTE Pro: The gap in the P2 fight is tightening, as Molina in the #92 Ferrari is now within six seconds of Catsburg in the #63 Corvette.
Mechanical problem
LMP2: Bad news also for the #22 United Autosports car, which had been third in class but is dropping down the order now after a trip to the garage for an alternator problem.
Mechanical problem
GTE Am: The #71 Ferrari, which has Ben Barnicoat at the wheel, is suffering from some kind of issue and is circulating slowly.
Stopwatch
LMH: Both Lopez and Hartley are in the 3m29.9s bracket, lapping within 0.02s of each other. Gap is out to 1.5s.
Pit stop
LMP2: Plenty of pitstops just now, including Habsburg for WRT and Canal in the Panis Racing car that runs third in class.
Quote
LMH: That was an orchestrated position swap, the Toyota team radio confirms.
Pit stop
GTE Pro: Ledogar finally brings in the class-leading #51 Ferrari. It's pretty much status quo in terms of the lead gap, with the Corvette of Catsburg trailing by around 25s.
LMH: Lopez passes Hartley, the #7 is back in front.
Quote
LMH: Hartley is told "full pace" and Lopez is told he's on a "different strategy" over the Toyota radiowaves. The gap has eked out to just half a second.
GTE Am: Ferrari F1 protege Callum Ilott is back at the wheel of the #80 Iron Lynx Ferrari after taking over from teammate Rino Mastronardi. But he's a long way back from second, about two minutes in fact.
Pit stop
LMP2: Magnussen has finally made it back to the pits for repairs. Plenty of work for the High Class crew to get on with, having clanged the right side as well as a biffed rear.
Stopwatch
LMH: 'Toyotagap' is now 0.43s!
GTE Pro: The #63 Corvette and #52 Ferrari were only two seconds apart prior to that last round of stops, but Catsburg is now almost 10s clear of Molina. He trails leader Ledogar by 1m35s, but with the #51 due a stop soon.
Stopwatch
LMH: The Toyotas are now 0.76s apart as they cross the line, with 192 laps in the book.
Stopwatch
LMH: The race is on at the front! Just 1.6s between #8 and #7 at the head of the field. Hartley versus Lopez.
Penalty
LMP2: It'll be a 10s hold for Rusinov at his next pitstop for causing the spin for Magnussen. It was quite some hit.
Pit stop
LMH: Pitstop for the leading #7 car, with Kobayashi giving way to Lopez. Probably has an appointment with the dentist after that stint on flatspotted tyres... Hartley now leads in the #8.
Yellow flag
LMP2: Magnussen is crawling around with rear-end damage, having been off again at the exit of the Esses and hit the wall hard. It's been a disastrous lap or two for the #49 High Class Racing car. He's told a rear puncture caused the crash, and Jan reports his steering is at "45-degrees".
Pit stop
GTE Am: Nielsen pits from the lead of GTE Am, giving up the controls in favour of rapid WEC novice Alessio Rovera. The Italian was recruited by the AF Corse team following Nielsen's promotion to a gold driver rating over the winter.
Crash
LMP2: Jan Magnussen is off at Arnage. He got a punt from the #26 G-Drive of Roman Rusinov. And now Jan Mags is struggling for a gear to get going again.
Pit stop
GTE Am: The #33 TF Sport Aston Martin has pitted from second in GTE Am. Felipe Fraga had dropped to around 1m17s behind Nicklas Nielsen in the #83 Ferrari.
Pit stop
GTE Pro: Now it's Catsburg's turn to pit in the #63 Corvette. The class-leading Ferrari is on a very different pit schedule to its nearest rivals.
Pit stop
LMH: Hartley has the lead down to 6.7s, as Kobayashi struggles with his flatspotted tyres. Hartley now pits.
Pit stop
GTE Pro: Miguel Molina has replaced Bird aboard the #52 Ferrari, which maintains third in class ahead of the two works Porsches.
Stopwatch
LMP2: The Team WRT ORECAs are running nose-to-tail at the front, just half a second between Deletraz and Habsburg.
GTE Pro: After that earlier hot lap, Catsburg has stopped making any progress on Ledogar's lead, and is in fact now 25s adrift. The Dutchman had the other works Ferrari, Sam Bird's #52 car, for close company before the Englishman (standing in for the injured Davide Rigon) pitted.
LMH: Not the first time we've seen this Toyota GR010 Hybrid suffer with a braking imbalance but, amazingly, Kobayashi has continued despite what you'd think were big flatspots. He's checking how much time he lost and is told 25s – he seems surprised he's still in front.
Off track
LMH: Our leader is back underway. Kobayashi was 30s ahead at the time, and now it's down to 8s! He had a big lockup at Indianapolis and shot down the escape road in a cloud of smoke.
Off track
LMH: Drama for the #7! It's off the track and stationary.
By: Loris Capirossi
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